Leaving 2010

In probably less than 8 hours I will finally be leaving Zamboanga City for another vacation. After 7 years I will be going back to Manila where I once had the greatest summer experiences and bonding moments with my family and cousins.

In less than 8 hours I will be up in the skies where in childhood I had believed the Invisible Man resides watching over the tiny people below. I will take wing and fly across islands and seas. My wings will touch the clouds and sweep at their fluffs. In less than 8 hours I will be seeing the sun rise at a different horizon. One that isn't obscured by houses and tall buildings. One where I am up in the sky, higher than the sun and gradually becoming lower than it. And when I'm on ground the sun would sneer down at me as if telling me that this is where I belong.

In 10 hours, perhaps, when I step out of the hangar, I will already be breathing in a different air, heavier, stranger, one that invites my cover-your-nose-and-mouth reflex. Memories of difficult transportations comes back, and I will be forced to control my senses, to not let the different environ disturb my system.

Within the next few hours and days after arrival, I will be able to see Manila well. Out of vehicles and freed from heavy bags, I will take in the urban places that surrounds me.

I will gaze up towards high buildings, skyscrapers, hotels and condominiums, the likes of which I cannot see everyday in Zamboanga.

I will breathe in the hot air outside, and I will breathe in the cool air inside establishments.

I will hear tongues of a common dialect that speak the proper accent. I will see stores and labels so foreign, so expensive, maybe even so reasonable than that of my local place of birth.

I will taste different kinds of sweets, sours, bitters, salty-s, softs and hards, smooths and heavy-s.

I will take out my wallet every now and then while eye-ing a particular something worth spending my papers for.

I will hunt for books demanding that they bring me a particular read that I most want. I will throw down almost half of my allowance just for the purchases at NBS and Fullybooked because Powerbooks cannot provide me the kind amount I need.

I will mingle with my closest cousins, spend some boy and girl interaction for a whole day and debate over who gets to treat who and end up treating no one at all. I will also meet my cousins on the father side of whom I haven't met for over 10 years.

I will be able to hop on the bigger rides of Enchanted Kingdom. Mama and Papa can't stop me. I'm 17, and this is finally something that can compensate my disappointments of the local carnivals.

Along with this trip I will spend a week away from my hometown; see my country at a different glance, wait for hours 'til the Philippines screams "Welcome!" to the coming year. I shall hold no powdery substance that could pop at the the flick of a lighter. I shall breathe no material that could highly trigger my asthma. I shall not run away from a setting skyrocket, and I shall not jump in my polka-dotted pajamas and bedroom slippers. I could not even shake a plastic container filled with coins and I could not walk in a room decorated with brand new coins on the floor. There would be no homemade somethings on the table and there would be no lola to hug for the 1st of 2011.

All there would be is a comfortable view of a Manila somewhere and maybe a comfy seatee to view the fireworks competing in the sky. It would seem like a flicker of morning and evening and there would be another sleepless night for me.

Nonetheless I will be leaving. Not for good, but only for a short while. It's what I need, perhaps. Something cheery. I will feel young again, I will jump, run, laugh, and worry at none for a week. The end of 2010 is on the palms of my hands and I can feel my world spinning along the cosmos. Where 2010 has been a bittersweet year, it apologizes this way. 2011 comes and I embrace it wholeheartedly.

Surely, this will be the best yuletide season, yet.

Happy holidays to all. *~Louise

Book Review: Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Plot: Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard–falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High… until vicious rumors about her and her best friend’s boyfriend start going around. Now Regina’s been “frozen out” and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn’t come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend… if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don’t break them both first.

Courtney Summers has done it again - leave me reading 'til the end. Yes, seriously. The fresh and new YA author has thrilled her readers to another immense novel that, like its predecessor Cracked Up To Be, made hits and millions of praises in the world wide web! But I must say though, if Cracked Up to Be was awesome, Some Girls Are is just awesom-er!

Courtney Summers has this thing with bad girls. They're all just bad in the limelight and had this "was good" past about them. The question is, do they all get as worse as their sloping life or would anyone please have mercy on them somehow?

Personally, I have had a moment with this book thinking that there are some parts in the story that I'm actually experiencing at the moment. No, I will not elaborate!

In this striking novel Summers writes in the view of Regina Afton a popular mean girl who is second member in a clique, the Fearsome Fivesome, the bullies of Hallowell High. Everything is seemingly A-okay for the life of Regina until her best friend's boyfriend tried to rape her and she ran to the least person she expected to trust, Kara Myers. When she got frozen out because of the upturned rumor that she "boned" Donny, Regina finally gets to experience the horrors of high school which she once played as the bringer of hell. Only this time, she gets to taste the abuse of her once best friends. Now trapped in a pit of betrayal, isolation, regret and no one to trust, Regina brings up the courage to sit with one Michael Haydens whom she once bullied and learns to live the way her victims do. As the months go on and evidence to the truth disappears, the bullying gets harder on her and she just can't put a stop to it. No one in school can help her escape the now Fearsome Foursome.

This book is thrilling and frustrating at the same time. Imagine yourself as a mean girl and you got kicked out of your own group just because of a rumor that isn't at all true. No one would believe you, no one would even listen. Now you become the victim, and seemingly you deserve it because of all the bullying you've done yourself in the past. The book is great at enticing its readers. Regina is pitiful because of everything she's dealing with but is also very frustrating because she just doesn't do anything. She plots revenge on Kara and yet none of it even helps in stopping the group from making her life miserable.

Some Girls Are excites me. It makes me wonder what happens next to Regina. Yes, also I was hoping that something abusive might happen to her as well. And thank you, Courtney Summers, there were a lot. This book has let me experience an environment much different than in my country. Where rules of discipline are strictly monitored and students are just as concerned of their welfare as their parents, bullying is very scarce. But maybe that's only because I studied at a private school.

Summers has not failed me. Parker Fadley may still be my favorite character among her books, but Regina Afton's story in Some Girls Are is just the best. Another praise to the best YA author I have yet read, Summers' books is as cool and number one in my Recommend list with Some Girls Are on the top. I have read this book last December 8 from 8PM to 3AM. Straight. That's how hypnotizing Summers' books are.


My rating:
   +  

4 g-tec pens. You should read this. =)

Dahil hanggang ngayon natutuwa pa rin ako sa planner na 'to

Ang dakilang planner na sadyang dedicated sa mga inlab, naging inlab, at desperadong mainlab.

Hinde ako desperado. Inlab ako. Nagustuhan ko lang naman ang planner ah.

Sadyang nakakatuwa naman at napilit ko si Mama na bigyan ako ng pera para lang sa planner na 'to. Oo na, mahal na siya. Pero, oha, nainggit naman kayo. Che.

Si nakakatandang kapatid naexcite, Christmas gift ko raw sa kanya? Hinde, asa ka pa! Tama na ang panghihiram mo nito. Wag ka nang umestilo pa, bumili ka na kasi. Ay oo pala, closed na ang online shop. Sayang naman. :)

Si jowa natawa, nahalata ata ang "traces of gayness" sa mga salita. 'Di naman 'yon masama. Nakakatuwa naman rin talaga ang mga bakla, lalo na pag gumawa sila ng planner na hango pa sa kanilang magaling na talento. Ang theme? Love. As always. P.S. hiningi ba naman ang mga coupon. San niya naman 'yun gagamitin? Ay hinde, KANINO niya 'yun gagamitin? Wag niyang sabihin sakin. Eh kanino pa ba, diba? D:

Mga kaibigan ko naman? Ayun hahaha... "Paxerox nga nito dai! Hoho!" Sikat na sikat ang coupons. Lalo na ang horoscope section. Si babae, "'Say goodbye. Let go. Move on. Forgive and forget. Ano ba, nauubusan na ako ng synonyms! Lumet go ka na!' Xet hahaha! Ayoko na!" Tinamaan? 'Yung isa pa, "Iteteks lang kita ha kung ano ang horoscope ko for each month." Eto namang si katabi, "Shet, nakarelate ako." Sabay walk out. Eh kung i-Christmas gift ko kaya 'to sa kanya ano? Masama kaya 'yun? Sa tingin ko mas makakatulong naman ito sa kanya. Ay hinde. Wag na. Akin 'to. Pera ni Mama.

Kung tutuusin, oo na, eto na ang pinaka"useful" na bagay na nairegalo ko sa sarili ko. Bakit useful? Eh kasi planner siya, ano pa? Pang-plan ko for 2011. First time ko'ng gumamit ng planner, ang cute pa. Tumanda na kasi 'yung iba, regalo pa nina Meralco at PLDT.  Blessing talaga ang mga bakla. Blessing talaga ang mga Pinoy. Ano pa? Blessing talaga ang mga inlab. I-merge ko na: Blessing talaga ang mga inlab na baklang Pinoy para sa mga inlab na Pinoy na may mga bakla rin at heterosexual. Sige na, tama na. Nababakla na rin ako.

Pasensya, minsan lang rin akong mag-tagalog. Mag-iingles na ulit. :D

Book Review: Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

The book cover

Plot: Cracked Up To Be is a novel of one "Perfect" Parker Fadley who was known for being a straight A student, had the perfect boyfriend, perfect popularity for being cheerleading captain, future valedictorian, and favorite pet of the faculty. Everything about Parker was perfect and  everyone thought that nothing could go wrong. Until something happened and Parker began to go to school drunk, fall off her top spot in the honors, skipped classes, quit the cheerleading squad, and dumped her perfect basketball star boyfriend. All she wanted was that people would leave her alone. Everybody thinks her methods are all cries for attention, but for Parker, it's the total opposite. Whatever she wants, she can't have at all, not with her parents putting her on suicide watch and the school's teachers trying to squeeze her secrets out. Most importantly, she can't give in to the New Kid. Jake has been curious of Parker for so long. The more she tries to mean him off, the more he wants to get to know her more, and he's making her feel things that she shouldn't be feeling at all. Nobody has ever made a second guess that Perfect Parker could turn out like this. The thing is, she doesn't want people to know. Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

Cracked Up To Be is Courtney Summers' debut YA novel featuring an immense and dark and totally "real high school world" story. Summers' is a hot shot at boggling her readers to a what-the-hell's-wrong?! state of reading. The whole story is a mix-up of a difficult-to-deal-with present and confusing flashbacks in between that all lead to how, why and what made Perfect Parker go deep down in the dumps.

I had read the book just once and I'm now itching to read it all over again! What's so great about the story is how funny and serious the main character's state is. Parker is a desperate girl who just wants to escape everything she's always been famous for and nobody knows why. She's got attitude problems that she's not really conscious of even at home. She ditches people meanly just because she wants to which doesn't really help her because it makes them want to keep her in St. Peter's world for longer. Her witty attitude which consists of mainly all bad traits like her mockery, the way she cusses and her really frank honesty makes her the "Crazy but Popular" type. And she's got the greatest talent that no one else in her school has: Lying.

Parker is perfect at anything except escaping. She couldn't escape her ex-boyfriend, she couldn't escape Becky, the New Kid, the guidance counselor, the principal, well, she can escape her parents, she can't escape school and she most especially can't escape her past. Nobody gets her and her attitude doesn't help, but being a reader is what makes us get her.

Summers is a delicious author, she removes herself from the rules and laws of writing and just creates as if taken out of a 15-year old girl's diary. She makes her readers feel young and whole high school and she can maneuver their minds to a very interested state. She is new, she is fresh, she is great and she is a must-stalk type of author!

In an engrossing read like Cracked Up To Be, Summers captivates her readers into a world of reality high school where escape isn't always where the Exit Sign hangs. With a curious character and a great mix-up of everything "adolescent", Cracked Up To Be makes one heck of an unputdownable debut that will surely, as the word has said, leave you stuck reading 'til the end.

My rating:
    +  

4 g-tec pens. This was really nice, you should grab a copy. =)

Ice Cream House Review: A Lejan Moment

The other  day, after half an hour of bloody exchanges of gunfire on Counter-Strike Source, Thor and I debated, yet again, where to spend the afternoon.

FYI: Thor is NOT my boyfriend. He's gay. And I hope he doesn't read this.

So he then took us to Lejan Ice Cream House because he can't decide on anything else. We seem to be too foreign to the city where we both lived for about 18 years.

Lejan Ice Cream House
-place smells like bread! Good bread.
-a picture memory of a local American diner familiarized me.
-the tables and chairs looked so 60's and cheap but is a really good thing. I like things old.
-Thor kept on whispering things like, "We should go back to 3rd Cup, this place is fvcking sick!" which is a good thing.
-the shop made a good effort of putting up decorations but only a few which still made the place look unknown and local but is still attractive to me.
-has good lighting.
-tables are big and for good dining purposes and not for dating couples.
-no music.

I brought a camera this time so the quality is okay.

The ice cream house sign

There are less spaces on the walls for portrait decors.

The house sports a display of sweets and breads! So local and good~!

Bread and pastries!!!

More bread and sweets!

The tables have this respectable distance from one another.

Xmas cheer!

Tables are so wide. 

The menu.

Rating:

3 quadruple-scooped ice creams to go please. Hahaha!
Thor didn't like the place because it was quiet and he was all, "I came here like, 7 years ago 'coz the ice cream's good, now can we go now?" It wasn't his type but I think it was okay because it was the peaceful kind of place where afternoon meriendas could be taken.

This what I ordered, a cheeseburger.

A small patty cheeseburger.

Looks better with ketchup. 

Thor's Palabok.

The noodles aren't visible with all the sauce.

Rating:

  

3 quadruple-scooped ice creams! The food was great for an afternoon snack.

The food, unexpectedly, was great! My cheeseburger looked so pitiful but upon eating it, wow, the bread was so nice (I always call breads nice whenever they taste so good). And the patty, too small, but was actually thick. I became full after gorging 3/4 of the whole snack. The burger wasn't too oily and the mayo was just the right amount. The cheese, though just a small slice, was okay because it wasn't off, it tasted fresh.

Thor's Palabok was okay. Quote, "[It's] just like Flavorite's." I had a bite and thought that, yeah, the sauce was kind of soupy which made it difficult to scoop up noodles with just a fork. The rest of it was good, still. I liked it, though of course I would prefer Flavorite's over any other.

Then comes our dessert! The most awaited part of all! And of course the specialty of the house: Ice cream!

Chocolate Lover's Delight! My share.

It's worth Php130 and only for a single person.

Sliced bananas, nuts, chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate ice creams in order and syrup-coated, two cookies in between scoops with chocolate syrups on them, and cream with cherries on top of each ice cream. Mmmm!

Tell me you want a taste too. :"3

The yummiest? Yes.

Thor's Black Forest Parfait.

Php130 and for one person only.

Big scoops of chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup, scrambled vanilla ice cream underneath and another scrambled chocolate ice cream on the lower part, nuts and cookie crumbles sprinkled on top and whipped cream with a cherry on top.

I never got to taste it 'coz I didn't feel like licking Thor's spoon.

Rating:

4 quadruple-scooped ice creams!

In the end, I never really got to finish my ice cream. Even though the waitress said that it was only for one person, I felt that it was actually for two persons to share. I needed help on the third ice cream, and when Thor didn't want to eat my share ('coz he can't get to finish his either) I played with the ice cream instead. Yes, I'm that childish.

The ice cream was guh-reat! Maybe because it's from Nestle and Nestle's always good. Still, I never got to taste such styles of ice cream-ery before so, being so ignorant, yeah it's a thumbs up. The banana slices were fresh and had just the right kind of softness to them. I looked at the other table and saw a girl order a banana split and I thought that I was thankful enough to have my bananas sliced beforehand than effort myself through cutting the whole banana with a long spoon.

Thor looked so ice-cream-unprofessional that he mashed the whole parfait making it look like a frothy shake. During the 3rd half, he looked like he was tired of the whole thing and was just about to give up when I offered the last of my ice cream. The whole Php130 dessert was too much and really looked obviously in need of another person to have it shared with.

I rate the ice creams a 4 because both desserts looked just the same except in style and the parfait lacked sliced bananas on it. A bit of uniqueness to each dessert is important and I didn't see the whole uniqueness to both desserts.

Overall Rating:

    + 


Would you like to return to Lejan for another dining experience?
Yes. I would love to. It's a great afternoon casual meeting place with couples who don't like secluded or too private places. It's more of an afternoon tambayan spot for locals who just want to have food and gossip and maybe some "alone time" for single people. It's not necessarily the type of place where you can idle by for too long - the feeling isn't there. The food is okay, more than okay, actually but is too pricey, so if you want somewhere cheaper than Php50 on the menu, some other place is best to go to. Overall, the highlight of the place are their desserts because, of course, it's an ice cream house in the first place.

______________

I would definitely go back and have ice cream with my boyfriend. Maybe by that time I might get to share the Chocolate Lover's Delight with him. And maybe by that time, there'll be music and we could try the main courses.
Has anyone else tried the ice cream at Lejan Ice Cream House? They were great. What's your dining moment like? Comment below.

Bye!~

Dying on the Horizons

Show me your secret post!

Calendar Method

Awesome! Nakakatuwa naman hahaha! Learning is fun!~ :D

1. Calendar method. Ito yung alam kong way kung paano malalaman yung exact days kung kailan ka safe. Natutunan ko ito nung 3rd yr college ako sa Maternal and Child Nursing. Tutal marami naman nagtatanong sakin, eto ituturo ko na para hindi na ako paulit ulit. :)
   • Fertile: ito yung days na malaki yung chance mong mabuntis. Hindi ka safe kapag fertile ka.
   • Meron ka dapat record ng first day ng mens mo for the past 6 months. (Ex: July 5, Aug 3, Sept 2, Oct 4, Nov 1, Dec 9)
   • Bibilangin mo kung ilang days yung cycle mo. Magstart ka ng bilang sa ika-1st day ng period mo hanggang sa first day ng next period mo.
   Example:
   • July 5 to Aug 3 = 30 days
   • Aug 3 to Sept 2 = 31 days
   • Sept 2 to Oct 4 = 33 days
   • Oct 4 to Nov 1 = 29 days
   • Nov 1 to Dec 9 = 39 days
   Then kunin mo yung longest cycle at shortest cycle mo.
   • Longest cycle: 39 days
   • Shortest cycle: 29 days
   Yung longest cycle, isusubtract mo sa 11. Then yung shortest cycle, isusubtract naman sa 18. Constant yung 18 at 11 ha. So bale:

   • 39 - 11 = 28
   • 29 - 18 = 11

   So fertile ka sa ika-11th day to 28th day. 1st day mo ay December 9 (Ito yung start ng count, kaya ang Dec 10 = 2nd day, Dec 11 = 3rd day, etc..) Ang ika-11th day mo ay December 19, at ang ika-28th day mo ay sa January 5.
   Kaya hindi ka safe ng December 19 to January 5. Para malaman mo kung totoo yan, makiramdam ka. Kapag fertile ka kasi, mainit yung pakiramdam mo. At may discharge ka na wet, profuse and slippery.
   (Credits to: Adele Pillitteri’s Maternal and Child Nursing)
   
   
   ________________
   
   
   reblogged from  jannie-oh and irishayne